Coin freed vending machine



May 5, 1936. H. G. DALTON ET AL 2,039,395

COIN FREED VENDING MACHINE Filed Oct. 2, 1954 lzigil.

m nf/vraes. HENRY G1 D mTa v Jzvfzs WS /771 Patented May 5, 1936 COIN FREED VENDING MACHINE Henry Guy Dalton, London, and James Woodrow Smith, Richmond, England, assignors to Turner & Newall Limited, ltochdale, England,

a British company Application October 2, 1934, Serial No. 746,594 In Great Britain January 2, 1934 8 Claims. This invention relates to coin-freed vending machines having refrigerating compartments for perishable goods of a packetted solid or semi-solid nature, such-as packets of block or brick icecream, butter, margarine, tubs of dairy, cream, and similar commodities.

The object of the present invention is to ensure that, when charged with refrigerant, the machine will keep the goods at a suitable tem'-' perature' for a reasonable length of time under normal external conditions. In this respect, to give a very broad guide, a vending machine of this character should be able to maintain small packets of ice-cream (of about one or two ounces each) in a semi-solid or plastic .condition for twenty hours or more with an external temperature in the region of, say, '70-80 Fahr. A coinfreed vending machine, for practical purposes, is limited in the capacity of-its refrigerant chamber, and consequently many of the usual refrigerants known to maintain temperature within desired limits cannot be accommodated in suflicient bulk to ensure adequate cooling over a reasonable length of time, and the time period is further reduced owing to the fact that the machine must necessarily contain a larger proportion of metallic structure and mechanism than in simple cold storage receptacles utilizing better heat insulating material. Other refrigerants, whose cooling effect lasts longer and which are of concentrated bulk (e. g. solid carbon dioxide), are known, but these yield a super-cooled product which, in the case of ice-cream would be an extremelyhard, brittle, and unpalatable icy mass.

with the foregoing object in ,view, according to the present invention, in a coin-freed vending machine witha refrigerating compartment. for

mechanically vendible goods there is employed a sealed chamber forming the side. and back walls of the said compartment and containing a thermal storage substance or secondary refrigerant acting as a buffer to insulate the goods compartment entirelyfrom contact with another chamber disposed adjacent the said sealed chamber and" chamber is a suitable eutectic mixture orother secondary refrigerant, for example ammonium chloride, which is selected so that a requisite constant higher temperature (in the region of, say,

.5 Fahr.) is'm'aintained during freezing, and'as heat imparted thereto by the goods is continuously' subtracted therefrom by the primary refrigerant at this constant temperature, this chamber constitutes what is virtually a thermal storage chamber for maintaining the correct degree of cold temperature. When the primary refrigerant has volatilized, the thermal storage chamber remains at its constant freezing temperature. for a further period until fusion commences.

In a machine constructed according to the foregoing description the thermal storage chamber naturally requires no replenishment or other attention, and a periodical supply of the primary refrigerant is alone necessary.

An embodiment of the invention will be described in greater detail, by way of example, with, the aid of the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a vertical section; and

Figure 2 is a transverse section through II-II of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing the body of the machine l is constructed as a double-walled member of a heat-insulating character. For instance, the double-walls may be packed with cork or the like. The bottom 2 of the machine contains the coin-freed mechanism, which-forms no essential part of the invention, and is omitted' for cleamess. The top is closed by a heat-insulated door .3. Surmounting the bottom 2 is a drawer 4 operable on insertion of a coin or coins.

' hon-dioxide orother suitable primary refrigerant,

'or to serve as a passageway for carbon dioxide gas, depending uponwhether carbon dioxide is placed directly in said chamber or in the space thereabove. This chamber 5 is in communication with the space thereabove by means of the open top 5.

The chamber 5 is disposed ad acent the compartment 6 for the vendible packages or other articles, there being interposed between the chamber 5 and the compartment 6 another chamber 1, which is'the sealed thermal storage chamber hereinbefore referred .to. This chamber I is designed to provide a hollow space for a suitable eutectic mixture or other secondary freezing agent. The latter is hermetically sealed in the chamber I, and when frozen at a higher temperature thanthe primary refrigerant or gas in the vessel 5, it provides a secondary refrigerant or thermal storage at a temperature best use of the primary refrigerant together with the maintenance of a more even temperature for a given period of time.

The usual apertures incidental to a coin-freed I machine (e. g. coin slot, drawer opening, and returned coin chute) may be provided with means such as automatically closed flaps, air-tight linings and the like to exclude the entrance of warmer currents except when they are actually in use. In addition, it will be observed that the walls of the chambers 5 and 'l and of the compartment i are spaced from the side and back walls of the body of the machine and from the door- 3 when the latter is closed, and that the passageways or spaces thus formed provide communication between the open top of the chamber building up more or less pressure within the body 5 and the space containing the drawer I. Thereby, gas evolving from solid carbon dioxide contained within the chamber 5 and escaping from said chamber through the open, top thereof, and

of the machine, finds its way to the drawer compartment and by its escape through any small openings between the drawer and the machine body, or through any other small openings which may exist, prevents the entrance of atmospheric air into the body of the machine.

'I'heinnerwallsof thechamber'lmaybelined with vitreous porcelain or otherwise constructed to give greatest eiiiciency and to preserve .the

the goods, a container for solid carbon dioxide, and. a secondary refrigerant containing chamber interposed between said goods compartment and said carbon dioxide container, the container for the solid carbon dioxide being open at one side forescape of carbon dioxide gas therefrom, and means providing communication between the open side of said carbon dioxide container and said goods removal opening so that the pressure of gas evolving from carbon dioxide within the carbon dioxide container prevents the entry of air through said goods removal opening into the casing.

3. In a refrigerator, a casing, and a secondary refrigerant containing chamber within said casing dividing the interior of the latter into a-goods compartment and a container for solid carbon dioxide, said secondary refrigerant containing chamber forming the side of the carbon dioxide container adjacent to the goods compartment and also the two adjacent sides of said carbon dioxide container, the walls of the goods compartment and of the solid carbon dioxide container and of the secondary refrigerant containing chamber being sp'aced from the casing walls to provide passages for circulation through, the casing of carbon dioxide gas evolving from solid carbon dioxide within the solid carbon dioxide container.

4. In a refrigeratorfa casing. and a secondary refrigerant containing chamber; within said casing dividing the interior of the latter into a goods compartment and a container for solid carbon dioxide, said secondary refrigerant containing chamber forming the side of the goods compartand also the two adjacent sides of said goods compartment, the walls ofthe goods compartment and of the solid carbon dioxide container ment adJacent'to the carbon dioxide container 4o c o iti i a vendib e state overiaslonc a peand of the secondary refrigerant containing riod as practical. These'inner walls may alternatively be made of zinc.

As previously indicated, carbon dioxide may be placedinthe spaceabovethe chambers i and asinstead of directly in the chamber I. In.-.that

o chinethroughanyspacesbetweenthe and the walls of its-compartment.

event, the chamber 5 serves as a passageway for the carbon dioxide gas which finds its way to the drawer compartment and acts as stated to prevent entry of atmospheric air into themadrawer 4 -Weclaim:

l.-In-acoinfreedvending machine, a casing, havirm an opening throughwhich goods may be removed, walls defining within said casing a eanpartment for the goods, a container for solid carbondioxidehavinganopeningfortheescapeof carbon dioxide gas,'and a aecondaryrefrigennt containing chamber interpoaedbetween .9 said goods compartment and said carbon dioxide -2.Ina'coinf,reedvendingmachine,acasing havingagoodsremoval opening, agoods removing drawernormally closing said opening, walls ddningwithin'aaid easing a compartmentfor 'side of the solid carbon dioxide container being chamber being spaced from the casing walls to provide for circulation through the casing of carbon dioxide gas evolving from solid carbon dioxide within the solid carbon dioxide container. 5. In a refrigerator, a casing, and a secondary refrigerant containing chamber within said casing dividing the interior of the latter into a goods compartment and a container for solid carbon dioxide,'said secondary refrigerant containing chamber forming the inner side of both the goods compartment and the solid carbon dioxide container and also two adjacent sides of the goods compartment ,and two adjacent sides of the solid carbon dioxide container,'the outer open and the side walls of said container being spaced at their outer edges from the adjacent side of the casing.

6. In a refrigerator, a casing, and a secondary refrigerant containing chamber within said casing dividing the interior thereof into a goods compartment and a container for solid carbon dioxide, the tops of said goods compartment and said container beingopen for circulation of carbon dioxide gas fromjthe carbon dioxide container about goods contained in the goods compartment, the casing having a, goods removal opening at the bottom .of' and communicating with the goods compartment, the outer side of the carbon dioxide container being open, the secondary refrigerant container forming the side walls of said carbon dioxide container, said side wallsbeingspacedattheirouteredgesfromthe adjacent side of the casing, and-thespacebetween 1 5 aosasos the edges of said side walls and the casing being in communication with the goods removal opening.

7,. In a coin freed vending machine, a casing having a goods removal opening, walls defining within said casing a compartment for the goods, a carbon dioxide container having an opening for the .escape of carbon dioxide gas, and a secondary refrigerant containing chamber interposed between the goods compartment and the walls of thecasing and spaced 'i'rom the walls of the casing to form passages, said passages leading from the carbon dioxide container opening to'the goods removal opening so that gas evolved from carbon dioxide within the carbon dioxide container may flow to the goods removal opening and by its pressure prevent entry of air h 3 through said goods removal opening into the 8. In a coin freed vending machine,- a casing having a; goods removal opening, means forming within said casing a goods compartment and a pair oi chambers one tocontain carbon dioxide and the other to contain a secondary refrigerant, the carbon dioxide chamber having an opening for the escape of carbon dioxide gas, the secondary refrigerant chamber being interposed between the goods compartment and the walls of the casing and being spaced from the'casing walls to form passages, said passages leading from said gas escape opening to said goods removal p ning.

HENRY GUY DALTON. JAMES WOODROW SMITH. 

